Thursday, March 21, 2013

My 2011 GATE/Post-GATE experience

After getting a lots of requests to share my experience post GATE-2011, I thought I should rather pen down all that I remember about the same. The queries have been mostly from the ones interested to know about MS program in IISc Bangalore or about the written/interview experience here.

So to start with, following is my GATE result:

AIR: 1196
Marks: (will update after checking)
Score : 664
Branch: CSE
Category: General

After GATE, when I checked my score with the answer key published by gate forum, I was standing somewhere around 53-54 but I actually got between 51-52. As per the stats of gate'10 I was expecting my rank to be between 500-600 but when I actually got a rank of 1196, I lost all my hope of getting through that year.

Still, encouraged by a few friends and college seniors, I applied to a few colleges including IITs and IISc. The following are the calls that I got along with the date on which I received the interview call letter:

1) M.Tech from SERC, IISc Bangalore(07/04/11)
2) M.S. from SERC, IISc Bangalore(17/05/11)
3) M.S. from IIT Madras(04/04/11)
4) M.Tech from IIT Madras in second list. (25/06/11)

However as I had already converted my seat in M.S. degree in IISc Bangalore, I didn't go for M.Tech written/interviews in IIT Madras.

My Experience With IISc

M.Tech: My first experience with IISc was for M.Tech in April'2011. Here we had to clear the written test on clearing which we could appear for the interviews on the same or next day. However, the written test was more of mathematical with lots of formula based questions and some basic maths questions from class 11/12. However as I had lost touch with books after GATE results and also due to my job, I could  not fare well in the written and could not clear it.

Hence a piece of advice from my end.. don't lose touch with your books after the results are out. If not this year, it will help you prepare for your next year.

M.S. : It was June and this time I was all determined that I would study properly and prepare for atleast 3-4 subjects but that finally didn't work out as planned due to work on weekdays and me getting a bit lazy on weekends. I finally ended up brushing the concepts of DBMS and computer networks.

On reaching the venue, we were asked to appear for a 30 min written test which comprised of 5 questions, each with part (a) and (b). It covered topics like data structures, algorithms, networks & matrix theory. The best part here was that the questions were more on analytic side rather than formula based questions.

Luckily this time I had cleared the written and was the first one to go for interview in that day's slot. I was asked what subjects I had prepared for. I told them DBMS & comp networks. However I was told that there was no intakes in DBMS lab so had to change my second subject to Data Structures & I had not touched that subject after GATE exam. The interview went on for around 45-50 minutes in which except 2 questions which were from CN, rest everything was asked from DS mainly concentrating on trees and graph theory. The whole interview went on with questions being fired by professors sitting in a panel of 5 and I had to continuously do board work and keep on explaining the stuffs.

The best part about the MS interview was that the questions being asked was more conceptual rather than direct formula based stuffs so if you are familiar with the basics of the subject, it would be easier for you to crack the interview. Also I was not able to question 1-2 questions properly but don't worry much about that. They are more concerned here with the approach you use when analyzing something new rather than at the accuracy of each question.

The next thing is that I was somehow mentally prepared that I have to appear for gate'12 so I was very relaxed during the written and interviews which helped me recall the known stuffs. So would advice you all to keep your calm when appearing for written/interviews for any college.

Hope this helps!!
Feel free to ask further in case u need more help!!

ALL THE BEST!!! :)

Link to my entry "How I prepared for GATE": http://words-of-the-fallen-angel.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-i-prepared-for-gate.html

Note: Please keep in mind that with rank around 500 or more, the chances of getting into core branch is less but chances of getting written/interview call from interdisciplinary branches are there.

Monday, March 11, 2013

My First Experience With Shooting


I have never been much of a shooter and have always been very bad with games that need to aim at stuffs. Shooting with a rifle at a bunch of multicolored balloons, pinned to a dirty white cloth three feet away at crowded Durga Puja fairs in home town has been the extent of my exposure to the trigger and the target (and I was bad even at that).

A few days back when I saw a deal for Nishaan Sports Shooting Academy, Bangalore offering 30 Rounds of Starter Air Rifle Shooting worth Rs 200 @ Rs 90 instead, it caught my interest and attention. After seeing that the online reviews for the place was good, I, along with a friend bought the deal from timesdeal and headed towards our destination on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Through out the 1.5 hrs that we had to spend in the bus to reach BTM Layout, 2nd stage, I kept on cursing the sun, the pollution and the traffic.

 I find myself in a narrow corridor painted a fluorescent green, shocking enough to do serious damage to your existence, even before you think of guns and ammo. One of the corridor walls displays framed posters with motivational text – “Perfection is Our Goal” and “Knock the ‘T’ off the Can’t”. I can see the corridor end a few feet away and possibly leading into some sort of a lobby or a hall, but I hear no voices. I wait for a few seconds to see if I would hear gun shots, but the only sound that reaches my ears is that of the ever-angry Bangalore traffic bustling on the road below.

On reaching inside, I see a girl shooting at her target with an imported rifle and an instructor standing aside. Just nearby is the counter where we showed him the coupons we bought online and pay him Rs 180(for the two of us). Knowing my history with aims and targets, I am yet not sure if this is really good idea for me but finally I also decide to take a chance just for fun.

After I complete some formalities of entering my name in a register and pay attention to the instructor as he explains what I was getting myself into. He tells me that the range is designed for 10 meters Air Rifles and Air Pistol and as a first-timer I would be shooting with the Rifle. The Pistol is harder to master and it will be some time before I will be comfortable with it. He then appears from the booth carrying a small box and sheets of paper with targets printed on them. He explains that I have thirty shots and opens the box to reveal thirty tiny pellets stored inside.

The targets are square in shape, made of thick paper around six inches each side with concentric circles neatly printed on them. Hitting the outermost circle gets you a single point which increases as you go towards the center with the two innermost circles fetching you ten points. Circles 7-10 are painted black and the instructor indicates that is where I will end up shooting all the time, if I practice regularly for a couple of weeks. 

The instructor illustrates the rather simple procedure of loading the pellet into the rifle and taking aim and I proceed to replicate it. I can see that I will not be wearing those cool headphone looking things or the transparent glasses which I have noticed shooters wearing, but there isn't time to fret over that as I am handed the rifle and asked to take my first shot. He then explains that to take aim I must first align the tiny marker at the head of the rifle to the target, then align that marker to a D shaped viewing panel right above the trigger. After the target is locked in view, he tells me to forget about it and focus only on the trigger and the press it in one smooth motion without any jerk or change in pressure.


We take position, the rifle butt pushing against the top right corner of my chest, my feet parallel to the target. I follow instructions and take aim and a deep breath, then hold it for a while trying to make the rifle stable and fix my eyes at the target. And then I let my finger go. It would have been a beautiful moment had everything gone as per plan. Instead, by the time I press the trigger, I can feel my hands and the rifle shaking like Shakira bringing on the World Cup and instead of a neat swoosh, the imaginary sound triggered by my moving finger is more like ‘thuk thataak’.

My first pellet lands somewhere outside the largest circle instead the center of the paper which I am actually targeting. Then the second pellet lands somewhere in circle 7 and the 3rd one hits the wall. The same thing keeps repeating for some 2-3 more shots. The instructor can see I am getting nowhere and so once in a while takes the rifle from my hands, again gives me instructions to properly stand and aim, tells me to correct my line of sight and keeps offering words of encouragement.

Then around the 8th or 9th time, I finally get a hit i.e. in the black circle so I get somewhat happy and encouraged to continue. By that time, my friend who came along somehow got the physics of the stuff wrong so hardly 2-3 of his pellets hit the paper n rest went to the wall. Somehow seeing myself better than him at making my shots on the paper atleast also was a source of encouragement for me(Sorry dude!).

After wasting around 9-10 of his shots, he finally figured out the right way to aim and shoot and ended up hitting the paper some 15 times out of which around 4 times he breached the black circles. However I have never been good at these stuffs but somehow I end up with around 20 out of 30 pellets piercing through the page out of which 4 times I breached the black circle and one was at the border separating the black circles from the white ones.


Finally after shooting for around 30-40 minutes, we were sweaty and tired. So we thank the instructor for the nice experience and walk out with our target sheets. Thought I would love to try it again but knowing my history with these stuffs, I have to think about it again!! ;)